Re: RAT SUPERBOWL INTERVAL HIJINKS

[SKuftinec@aol.com]

I suppose I'll enter the fray/frey.  To equate opera with high culture is not 
really historically accurate. Mozart wrote "popular operas" for performance 
outside of the palace. And if we expand a definition of "opera" to include 
theater that is musicalized that's about the only thing going on in late 17th 
c. England when legally only two theatres were allowed to produce plays--led 
to enormous creativity and/or bastardization of Shakespeare texts depending 
on your point of view. 

There seems to be a kind of dangerous reverse elitism pervading this list. 
And I'm not sure whether all the hostility directed towards Lucie is actually 
productive of intelligent (rather than intellectual) conversation. Must we 
rule out civility when engaging in ideas? Or is this just another perceived 
form of censorship? And the "Brit Bashing" is just nonsensical and out of 
control. 

I'm all for roughing it up in the ring with the high art/ popular culture 
debate but hope this discussion can continue without derogatory reference to 
national origins. 

American Pop Culture Baby Of Slavic Descent


In a message dated 2/2/00 9:14:49 PM, mego1911@gte.net writes:

<< was not aware of the big opera craze sweeping the nation (would seem the
under 35 set has cought on to eliteism)...my point being that the lofty
ideals of creating high art often leave one out of touch with the audience. 
 >>